In 1930, Bertoia traveled to Detroit to visit his brother. Instead of returning to Italy as he had planned, he remained in Michigan and enrolled in a technical high school for artistically gifted students. Eventually, he earned a scholarship to the Cranbrook Academy to study drawing and painting. Upon graduating in 1939, Eliel Saarinen, then director of the academy, invited Bertoia to join the faculty and re-open the defunct metal workshop. Bertoia remained at Cranbrook until 1943, teaching, and designing jewelry and household objects. A tea service he designed during this period remains in Cranbrook's permanent collection.

Following his teaching career, Bertoia moved to California to work with Charles and Ray Eames at the Evans Products Company, where Charles Eames worked as Director of Research and Development. There, they experimented with molded plywood technology in the service of the war effort. After Eames began to implement Bertoia's innovations without crediting him, Bertoia left. He worked briefly for the Point Loma Naval Electrical Lab in San Diego, where he began to sculpt in metal during his free time. He never titled or signed his work, preferring instead to let his viewers approach it without Page 2 >